Michael's book list

Database Design and Relational Theory

Note: This short review references the video, not the book of same title.

First of all, the matter in hand is a pure video. No application to resume with the last seen, no electronic table of content, no electronic glossary.

As the title says, the subject is database design and relational theory. Even though C. Date makes mention of practical usage, it's still theory. Such it addresses database professionals to enhance the practical knowledge with all the information needed to scale the next level. And of cource, the listener needs a robust foundation of database design to follow C. Date. Sometimes, it seems to be a bit boring to hear all that theoreticall stuff about relational variables, normal forms, redundancy, mathematical proofs etc. But then, suddenly new cognition arises. And that's why that video is so valuable.

For the most part, C. Date talks about normalization. First in an informal, then in a formal way. Beware, informal doesn't mean practical. He mainly covers functional dependencies and Boyce/Codd normal form, join dependencies and 5th normal form as well as multivalued dependencies and 4th normal form. By the way he talks a bit about other normal forms and denormalization. After this big part, he spends some time on th priniciple of orthogonal design and redundancy. His credo is "We need more science". And in the main appendix he states primary keys to be nice but not essential. Thus, design theory goes much beyond current implementations.

Conclusion: This video is a mess for all that people who only perform practical database creation. For all those people who really design databases, this video drive skills.

The content of this video equates C.J. Date's book with the same title.